"And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering...." (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

OVERDUE INTRODUCTIONBy Alina Adams

When this blog launched in September of 2006, it was purely a corporate entity, designed to promote PGP soaps still on the air and on-line. As a result, a majority of the posts were strictly informational, with only periodic bursts of opinion or personality.

Now, however, the focus has changed. This will now be a place to remember the soaps we all loved and to continue their legacy the best that we can. I won't be doing it alone. Other soap professionals have already joined me and there are more to come, so please stay tuned. (On that note, only two more days to enter our drawing for an autographed copy of Tina Sloan's new book. We'll be picking winners on Friday, so if you haven't already, sign up now!)

In the meantime, I thought that I would finally formally introduce myself, and I hope that you all will do the same in the Comments section below.

I came to PGP in 2001. (I had previously worked at ABC Daytime and ABC Sports.) In addition to producing the show's official websites, I also wrote the ATWT tie-in books, Oakdale Confidential and The Man From Oakdale, as well as co-wrote the GL tie-in, Jonathan's Story. (I was pregnant with my third child at the time the GL project was happening and when I looked at the book's due date, I saw that it conflicted with another due date I already had on the calendar; that's why the additional writer was brought in.) I recently contributed a chapter on writing tie-ins for soaps to the book, Tied-In.

On a personal note, I was born in the former Soviet Union and came to the United States in 1977 as a refugee from the Antisemitism there. My husband is African-American, which means that our kids are being raised in an interracial, interfaith, intercultural home, and that I am particularly interested in issues of diversity and personal identity in the media. (I've written extensively on the subject in other publications.)

In between my soap stints, I also worked as figure skating researcher for ABC, NBC, TNT and ESPN. Those experiences formed the basis for my figure skating murder mystery series of books from Berkley Prime Crime.

But, enough about me. Tell me about yourselves and the sorts of things you hope to see on this blog in the future! Let's all remember the shows... and continue their stories... together.

6 comments:

Wow, that's a varied life there! :) When it comes to soaps, I was here just for Guiding Light, but still came here after it ended for any news. But if there is anything I would love to see, just not sure if it's possible anymore. . . definitely like pictures! :)

I think this is a great idea. One idea I have is a writing contest to bring back ATWT's Reid Oliver back from the dead(He should never have been killed off in the first place). It would be fun to see the many different ways people would ressurect him.

Thank you Alina for all of your work over these last many years in keeping the legacy of Procter and Gamble's soaps alive.

How sad that we are losing the You Tube and Hulu holdings. P & G could insert commercials into those episodes as revenue generators. We would not mind in order to keep them there. Even better would be a 24/7 P&G Internet channel with a daily update segment from you on the stories underway on the various shows and updates on cast from all of the various interviews on the blog. Once again, the episodes could be loaded with commercials in all of the break segments. I only know Guiding Light and As the World Turns through You Tube, so there is a worldwide on-line audience out there.

Before signing off, are we losing the Telenext message boards? That will be yet another blow. I love what you are doing with Another World Today and was thrilled to see a new Edge of Night presence.

I'm glad that you're continuing this blog as I've always come here for photos since this blog started. I look forward to the new "shift" in focus. As long as it continues, I'm good. Though I must say I completely bummed that the Hulu/YouTube classic episodes are being pulled. I was foolishly hoping that even older episodes would get posted eventually. :(

I've watched ATWT since the early 90s (GL too, though ATWT is my favorite by far). My favorite ATWT characters are Katie, Jack and Janet. Along with them, remembering the Snyder farm set and the Holden/Lily/Damian triangle from 90s is probably my fondest memories.

I was disappointed that Emma hasn't been on the show the last couple of months, and I think it would be interesting to explore what she's been up to.